# Is bio-based plastic lower carbon than fossil plastic?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/bio-based-plastic-lower-carbon

Not automatically. Bio-based plastic takes its carbon from plants, but farming, fertiliser and processing add emissions, and the end of life matters. Burned, it releases biogenic CO2; sent to landfill, some types can make methane. Ask the supplier for a cradle-to-gate footprint per kg and compare like for like.

## Questions to ask

- Cradle-to-gate kg CO2e per kg, with the method.
- Feedstock and where it is grown.
- How the product is disposed of in your market.

## How to report it

Count purchased bio-based plastic in Scope 3 Category 1 using the supplier figure, and do not claim stored biogenic carbon as a removal.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads bills, fuel invoices and production records into dated, fingerprinted records, so the figure you send a buyer can be traced to its documents.

- [Thermocol vs moulded pulp](https://senseible.earth/answers/eps-thermocol-vs-moulded-pulp-packaging-carbon)
- [Packaging end of life](https://senseible.earth/answers/packaging-end-of-life-emissions-food-exporters)

Sources: [GHG Protocol standards, including the Product Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/standards), [GHG Protocol Scope 3 Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-value-chain-scope-3-standard), [2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories](https://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/)

Last reviewed 2026-10-23.